Opinions of Thursday, 30 May 2024

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Is the dumsor ongoing in Ghana partly an act of sabotage or purely for repair works?

File photo File photo

When I was in Ghana recently, I witnessed persistent power outages in Kumawu, a part of Kumasi where I stayed, and parts of Accra. I was wondering how, in the last year of the NPP government, they had started facing challenges of power outages, popularly referred to in Ghanaian coined parlance as “dumsor.”

President Nana Akufo-Addo’s NPP government had managed the electricity supply to the nation very well for the past seven years, amid intermittent alleged attempts by certain opposition political activists to sabotage his good works in that area.

We saw and heard about some political enemies causing extensive damage to major transformers and pylons in Tema and other cities in Ghana, all to undermine the president and his government.

Not long ago, I received a video showing damage caused to electrical cables and fuses powering the streetlights around the Legon area. Some people, for undisclosed reasons, had removed the cables and fuses.

Were they removed by those people referred to as “condemn,” who go around seeking scrap metals and electrical cables to sell to scrapyard operators?

These “condemn” guys even go to the extent of scraping newly installed electrical wires from newly constructed buildings that are not yet occupied.

However, if the video that precipitated this write-up were to be true and not fake, then I would be compelled to believe that most of the ongoing dumsor in Ghana in recent times is pure political or criminal sabotage. Those behind the act are doing so for selfish motives.

If the incident in the video were true and not false, then I would suggest to the police that they tail the person intentionally or criminally causing the dumsor in certain areas of Accra or Ghana for the fun of it.

If the video is true, then the question is, who recorded it and put it on social media? For how long has the video been out there before it was forwarded to me by my wife?

The police had better investigate the video to inform the nation accordingly.

As an armchair journalist ready to support the good cause of his country, I shall not sleep over any information that affects Ghana and the public in any way if it comes to my knowledge. I shall put it out to alert those in positions of authority to cross-check to prove its authenticity or falsity.

In almost all cases of chieftaincy affairs involving claims to total ownership of things by the overlords, I do research and inform the public correctly by way of rebuttal to such frivolous claims or otherwise.